A Structuring Chaos Blog

Some Strategy is All Action

I’ll admit that I haven’t spent a lot of time looking at theWisconson recall election. Yes, I’ve seen it all over the blogs, and that’s mostly focused on incumbent Scott Walker (and his Lt. Governor) staying calm while everyone screams around them… kind of like the whole union rebellion in the first place. When the state senate recall elections were in place, everything seemed to focus on the union vote, and that effectively went nowhere.

In the governor recall election, things have mostly gone with the Democrats saying, “I’m better,” and leaving out the union issues while the unions drive vote efforts and money. Unions from out of state are sending people to Wisconson to Wisconson to get the vote moving, and that’s tightening the polls in the last days. I suppose fear is an exceptional strategic motivator. But it doesn’t appear to be working all that well.

Many Wisconsin voters said they’re fed up with union campaigning and accused outsiders of poisoning the political climate.

“It’s a lot of people from outside stirring the pot,” said Steve Tate, 54, of Deforest, who backs Walker. “This recall is a waste of money. We should ride out the tough times and work with one another.”

There are quite a few people I’ve noticed saying that a six-point lead might not be enough with a strong union get-out-the-vote effort underway. I couldn’t tell, myself, but I suspect that this will pretty quickly resolve tomorrow evening. One thing to watch is how fast the metropolitan areas come in. Those are the returns that lean Democratic, and often lag is most elections. I’m not going to accuse anyone of “trying to find” votes in the system, but a hard push at the end of the day based on polling data probably means that the unions and democrats are pushing a lot of people in, and that will delay the vote tallies.

Either way, this election will set a new direction for how union power is perceived, and what freedom government has in negotiations in the future with unions in the various states. I’d expect that all the action getting out the vote will demonstrate future strategies that each side will be playing.